HOW THEY BEGAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 763, 5 March 1954, Page 14

HOW THEY BEGAN

_|[T seems to be a necessity for novelists to get certain things out of their sys-tem-one might even go so far as to say that a novelist’s life consists of nothing else but getting things out of his system. That is the opinion of R. C. Hutchinson, one of the speakers in a new series of BBC programmes, My First Novel, which starts from YC stations next week. Other well-known writers who contribute talks in the series are Sir Compton Mackenzie, Rosamund Lehmann, Norman Collins, Joyce Cary, and Emma Smith. The first speaker is Sir Compton Mackenzie, and his talk will be heard from|1YC and 4YC at 9.30 p.m, on Monday, March 8, and from 2YC at 8.15 p.m. the same day, from 3YC at 8.46 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, and from 4YA at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, March 13. He relates the history of The Passionate Elopement, which, he wrote in .his very early twenties, At the time he was meant to be a playwright, and in order to encourage the continuance of a yearly allowance from his father, the famous actor-manager Edward Compton, he wrote The Gentleman in Grey, which went. into the Compton repertoire of 18th Century plays. Then young Compton Mackenzie had the idea of turning his play into a novel as The Passionate Elopement, and in his talk he descr’bes its weary journey round the publishers before. an enterprising young newcomer to the business made it the first novel of his publishing house, Joyce Cary found the material for his first novel, Aissa Saved, during his time as a member of.the Nigerian Political Service. The baok deals with the life and death of a girl converted by a mission, and into it went people and backgrounds that Cary had noted over a period of years. He admits that he cannot remember when the book actually began; his books do not begin with a plan but in a character sketch or scene, which may or may not grow into @ short story or novel, -_ Rosamund Lehmann describes her first novel Dusty Answer, which was written when she was still suffering from mental and_ spiritual growing pains, She speaks vividly of the impact on a young writer of the reception of her book by the critics: a discouraging reception at first, but quickly turning into a considerable success with the public ‘after Alfred Noyes had written in praise of it in a Sunday newspaper. For Norman Collins, author of London Belongs to Me, the writing of novels is an occupation for late at night or the early hours of the morning, when the jobs of his normal day’s work have been cleared up. His first novel, Penang Appointment, was produced in his spare time from working as deputy-chairman of a publishing house, and he prepared the ground for it by making sure that he had at least one other published book to his credit. . Writing her first novel, Maiden’s Trip, was as easy as falling off a log, Emma Smith confesses in her talk in ‘the series. She describes lightheartedly how the perfect set of circumstances joined hands-a shortage of money which induced a flow of ideas, an indulgent mother who made things easy for her at home while the book was being written, and first-class material to draw on in the shape of two years she spent working in canal boats during the war.